Making Big Changes and Different Choices

A new semester is starting next week and with each start of a school year comes big changes. This year is no different and it will be interesting to see how I'm feeling when the semester winds down in few months. On the school front the biggest difference will be our new campus. I've spent the past four year on Queens University campus, and I'm not going to lie, I really enjoyed having a valid excuse to hang out on a college campus again. I loved being able to study at the coffee shop or outside in one of the courtyards. I guess my days of blending in with 20 somethings are over.

The scariest change coming is my graduation. This Fall is my last semester as a seminarian. I will officially graduate in April, but I will be done my class work this semester. So much of my time here in Charlotte has been defined by seminary. I've been in school for all three years of my marriage. I have so many questions about what life will look like once I have my Saturday mornings free. When I tell people that I'm graduating, I'm most often asked "What's next?" I know people are just excited for me and curious as to what my plans are, but I find it so interesting. Is is just our society that pushes toward the next thing before we've had time to finish and enjoy our current situation? I don't know what's next. For now, I am still a student; one that has to pass Christian Ethics and New Testament before receiving my degree. I'm also teaching a study on Ruth to young adult women at church. My plate is full right now, and I want to keep my focus on the present before I look to the future.

Whenever I start a new school year, I also look at my personal life. When your life revolves around school for so long, the school year is your new year, not January. So with this in mind, I started thinking about how I can be a better version of myself. One area (besides my spiritual life- we'll get to that later) I decided to focus on is my health. While at dinner with a friend I realized that I have 13 different doctors. THIRTEEN. I am 32 years old and it takes a bakers dozen of medical professionals to keep me functioning, and I'm not even at 100%!!! Something has got to give. I have made a plan of action and I'll probably write more along the way. I'm not expecting to cure my lupus or fibromyalgia, but maybe I won't need the migraine medicine or the insomnia medication, or maybe I'll  have more energy and begin to feel closer to 32 as opposed to 82. Who knows? Once again, I don't want to focus on end results. I want to focus on the choices I make throughout eat day, every day. That's a more manageable, stress reducing way for me to live. The future will be there waiting and worrying over won't make it come any faster.